[Advances in assay for transposase-accessible chromatin with high-throughput sequencing]

Assay for transposase accessible chromatin with high-throughput sequencing (ATAC-seq) was developed in 2013. It has the advantages of more convenient operation and higher efficiency for DNA recovery than DNase I hypersensitive site sequencing (DNase-seq) and micrococcal nuclease sequencing (MNase-seq). ATAC-seq currently is the most popular technique of genome-wide mapping for chromatin accessibility. It provides information on binding regions of transcription factors and nucleosome localization on the chromatin. Thus, ATAC-seq is of great significance for studying the epigenetics and molecular mechanisms in chromatin structure. In this review, we compare the advantages and disadvantages of multiple techniques for profiling chromatin accessibility, and summarize the principles, main process, development and applications of ATAC-seq. We hope this review will provide a reference for study of genome-wide mapping for chromatin accessibility, identification of cis-regulatory elements, and dissection of the epigenetic and genetic regulatory networks using the ATAC-seq technology in eukaryotes.